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Steve_in_Texas
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A suggestion for a future release.
Mar 27th, 2004 at 3:27pm
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Just a suggestion:

Obviously, Element names are great for data entry people becuase the names are more user friendly, but when the user switches to Table View, they dont recognize the column names at the top of each column. It seems that the user would benefit better from seeing the header bars at the table view showing the "Element Name" rather than the "Bound To" field. (How about an option the user can select as to which names to use)

Also, it sure would be nice to have at least a bit more power in Table View, such as being able to select multiple columns, or rows, or even cells, when copying and pasting.

We are finding that we have to export our data to excel just so we can copy and paste several rows at a time.

Just my .02.....although, I think I'm up to .03 now.
Smiley

Thanks for listening!

Steve

  
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The Cow
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #1 - Mar 27th, 2004 at 4:13pm
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Quote:
Just a suggestion:

Obviously, Element names are great for data entry people becuase the names are more user friendly, but when the user switches to Table View, they dont recognize the column names at the top of each column. It seems that the user would benefit better from seeing the header bars at the table view showing the "Element Name" rather than the "Bound To" field. (How about an option the user can select as to which names to use)


Table view is largely intended as a diagnostic and data repair facility (much as it was intended (and used) in Q&A). In that light, the data is shown with the least formatting and the actual field names are used. The idea being that nothing is disguised. You know precisely what you are editing and what the database engine believes its value to be. Furthermore, event programming is turned completely off - so that edits are not altered before being sent to the engine. It is really the only way in Sesame to get to the actual data as it appears on the engine, by the name the engine uses.

It may well be, that we'll introduce a second table view that is intended for data entry by end users, that formats values, that runs event programming, that uses LE names insteads of field names, supports non-mandatory restrictions, etc... But, as it stands, these features would each in their own way, obscure or interfere with table view's ability to operate as a low level access point to the actual data.

Because, table view does allow this kind of necessary access, you will note that the "data entry" user level is given only "read only" access to table view.

Quote:
Also, it sure would be nice to have at least a bit more power in Table View, such as being able to select multiple columns, or rows, or even cells, when copying and pasting.

We are finding that we have to export our data to excel just so we can copy and paste several rows at a time.

Just my .02.....although, I think I'm up to .03 now.
Smiley

Thanks for listening!

Steve



Here, I agree entirely, the ability to copy and paste multiple rows would be a nice addition. It would also be nice to have a similar facility for forms as well. The Q&A model of "Dittoing" the last form viewed is too limited and imprecise. We've been looking for a good way to use the GUI model of Copy/Cut/Paste as applied to entire forms, but as you might imagine - that can be very complicated when dealing with subforms and a dozen or so "widget" types - some with multiple "views".
  

Mark Lasersohn&&Programmer&&Lantica Software, LLC
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #2 - Mar 27th, 2004 at 4:19pm
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Mark, thanks for the response. Looking forward to any "possible" enhancements you can work into Sesame.   Cheesy

Steve
  
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #3 - Apr 17th, 2004 at 5:50pm
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Just wanted to add some info on problems I am seeing in Sesame 1.0.3 that MAY be bugs.

1. randomly, while in preview or add/search mode, the close/open command view option brings the botton grey border up about 3 inches, thus hiding much of the form. Doesnt go back down unless I exit the form, then try again. I dont see a pattern here, its just random. My command buttons for "close/open command tree" does the same thing, randomly. Doesnt affect programming, but VERY annoying.

2. while trying to make default value of any tabpage to "not visible", the Property Viewer always shows Visible: True, although the tab page is actually not visible while in preview mode.

3. Possibly related to #2, programming crashes if tyring to make an invisible tab page to visibile [visibility(tabpage3,1) ]. Test Program does not find error, but preview aborts all programming.

Just wanted to throw this out on the table, in case you weren't aware.

Thanks again for all the support.

Steve in Texas
  
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Hammer
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #4 - Apr 18th, 2004 at 12:21pm
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Steve,

When you say "tabpage", do mean one page of the pages in a tab group, or do you mean the tab group itself?
  

- Hammer
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #5 - Apr 18th, 2004 at 12:51pm
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Erika,

I tried hiding one page at a time using the following programming:

visilibilty(tabpage1,0)
visibility(tabpage2,0)
visibility(tabpage3,0)

The propery viewer always said "visible:true", but when in preview, all 3 pages were successfully hidden.

I tried programming such as:

if StockNo = "large widget" then visibility(tabpage3,1)

and I think thats where I got the message "some programming didnt work, no event programming will run....".

Thanks for your help.

Steve
  
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #6 - Apr 18th, 2004 at 1:01pm
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Steve, you can't set visibility on individual tab pages this way.  A tab group controls which tab page you see by making it visible and hiding the others. Interfering with this can cause unpredictable results. What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? Perhaps we can suggest a different method.
  

- Hammer
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #7 - Apr 18th, 2004 at 1:11pm
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Well, it just seemed to make sense that this would work. I want different pages to show up depending upon the action selected.

However, I think Mark mentioned he is working on a fix that allows programming to "goto" a certain tab page, so this may be what Im after.

Also, what is the command for "hiding" or showing the "tabgroup"?

Thanks
Steve in Texas
  
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #8 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 3:31pm
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The tab pages are killing me.

I created a new tab page to an existing tab group and dragged about 20 LE's onto it.

Then created a new tab page (onto this new group) and called it Preview and dragged a few more LEs onto it.

Just to be safe, I clicked and "nudged" each LE so they showed 'parenting' to the proper LE.

Saved and entered preview.....All the tab pages were "invisible" and ALL the LE's in this form were stacked on top of each other. Instead of having 2 tab pages, I had about 50 pages, and they were labelled using the labels from the LE's adn buttons that were in the form. It was a mess! (Even the tab page colors changed to be the colors of various LEs and Buttons.)

I was able to correct the issue by dragging ALL (100 or so) LEs off of the tab pages, deleting the tab group and draggin them one by one back onto a new tab group.

It seems like Sesame doesnt like you to adding onto an existing tab group. Once an LE is parented, it wants to stay that way, even though it tells you otherwise when dragging an LE over a tab page.

Also, I had a group of LE's with a colored box behind them all. I rubberbanded a box around the entire group to drag them to a new tab page, but couldnt. It said "Retaining original Parenting" (or similar)  instead of "parenting to tabpage 1". After deleting the box, it seemed to work fine.

As always, thanks for listening. I hate to sound like Im complaining, just hoping to see Sesame become more user friendly for the "novice users" like myself.

Thanks
Steve in Texas
  
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Hammer
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #9 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 3:40pm
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Steve,

Are you using the most current version? We fixed a bug having to do with tab "artifacts" left behind, especially when using Undo in combination with Tab Page actions.

The "retaining current parent" message means that all of the currently selected elements cannot be moved onto the Tab, usually because they don't all fit. In that case, you need to move them on in smaller groups.
  

- Hammer
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #10 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 3:44pm
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Something else I forgot to mention,

On a couple of occasions (just now, in fact) I moved all my LE's off of their tab pages, then deleted the tab pages. The LE's showed "Parenting to 'form name' ". after saving and preview, all my LE's were deleted!!!! The form was blank and obviously programming was now showing errors.

Thank God for backups!

Steve in Texas
  
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #11 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 3:45pm
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Im using 1.0.3.

Also, I made sure my tab page was Much much larger than needed to house the LE that I was moving. (I do this becuase the screen really jumps around when trying to drag an LE to an area just beyond the edge of the screen. Also frustrating, but my "Love" for Sesame has allowed me to persevere with this and other "annoyances".

Thanks again for hearing me out Smiley

Steve in Texas

ps. I dont use undelete, in general so I dont think my issues are related to this.

One more thing. Is there a chance an LE may have ''slipped" behind the canvas? If it did, it seems there would  be no way to recover it if it is near the top left of the form. Maybe a print of the form would reveal this?
  
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #12 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 3:56pm
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Steve,

I'd like to see this application. The issues you describe sound very much those from an earlier version. I'm wondering if perhaps you started this app in 1.0.2 or earlier? Anyway, I'd like to take a look at it in the debugger. If you can/will, send it to support@lantica.com marked to my attention. Thanks.
  

- Hammer
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #13 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 4:05pm
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I'm sure I started this app in ver 1.0.2. I'll send you the files.

Thanks!

Steve in Texas
  
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Steve_in_Texas
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Re: A suggestion for a future release.
Reply #14 - Apr 27th, 2004 at 4:12pm
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Erika, I see the bug! I think your right. It's probably a bug carried over from the previous version.

When you get my email, open Invoice3 (my latest work) and look at tab page called "misc". It seems missing in Preview, but shows up fine in redesign mode. This must be why all the LE on that tab page were screwed up. I dragged all the LEs to the canvas and plan to delete the tab page 'misc' and make another one.

I'll leave it alone until you take a look.

Thanks,
Steve
  
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